Method and apparatus for providing personal mobility features in a telecommunications environment

ABSTRACT

Personal mobility, multiparty control, and device augmentation features are provided within a voice-over-Internet protocol environment, such as a distributed feature composition (DFC) telecommunications architecture. The personal mobility features allow a caller to be identified to a callee using a desired identifier in place of an identifier of the device from which a call is made. Such personal mobility features are made available in multiparty calling environments and after mid-call moves. Device augmentation features provide enhanced calling options to a device that may otherwise be unequipped to provide such options, thus enabling personal mobility and multiparty control features across a wide variety of telecommunications devices.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to telephonic communications,and relates more particularly to Internet-based telecommunicationsmultimedia communications.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

As technology progresses, telecommunications customers demand anincreasing variety of features that are personalized in their functions,and can be used wherever the customer happens to be. Cellphones arepopular because they provide one kind of personal mobility called“device” or “network-based” mobility, since the physical device maychange locations without changing its network address. Cellphones,however, have many limitations with respect to voice quality, batterylife, geography, and user interfaces. Also due to issues such asbilling, customers cannot always use the same device for both work andpersonal needs.

Telecommunications software, however, is notoriously difficult todevelop and upgrade. Its complex, distributed, and real-time featureseach have many interactions, some of which can result in unpredictabledevice interaction on a telecommunications network. This is furthercomplicated by the telecommunications devices themselves having a widevariety of signaling capabilities and functionality.

Contrary to early predictions, these problems are present even invoice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) environments. Currently, vendors ofVoIP equipment are struggling to support the common dual-tonemulti-frequency (DTMF) signaling of Public Switched Telephone Networks(PSTNs) with which they may interact. At the same time, it is even moredifficult for them to augment existing devices to accommodate newpersonal mobility features.

Accordingly, there is a need for accommodating enhanced personalmobility functions in VoIP and other telecommunications environments inwhich feature interaction, feature expansion and device augmentation arereadily accomodated.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure introduces a method and apparatus for providingpersonal mobility features in a telecommunications system. When a callerinitiates a call to a callee, the system receives a device identifier ofa telecommunications device from which the request is sent and receivesa caller identifier corresponding to the caller. The personal address orcaller identifier may be established by the caller and is independent ofa device identifier of any telecommunications device being used by thecaller. The system then applies call features subscribed to by thecaller based only on the personal address of the caller, and regardlessof the device currently being used by the caller. The system may requirean authentication of the caller prior to establishing the call features.

The system provides further personal mobility, multiparty control anddevice augmentations functions that allow a caller to transfer anestablished call to another telecommunications device, to add callers toa call, to transfer the call to other callers, and to combine separatedevices to act as a compound device during a call, or to add features toimpoverished telecommunications devices.

In certain embodiments, the implementation of these call features may beperformed within a distributed feature composition (DFC)telecommunications environment using appropriate feature boxes, as wellas routing algorithms for establishing the precedence order thereof Infurther embodiments, these implementations may be included in specificDFC environments, such as those using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further aspects of the present disclosure will be more readilyappreciated upon review of the detailed description of its variousembodiments, described below, when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of feature boxes for a single personal call in a DFCenvironment as found in existing technologies;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary diagram of personal mobility feature boxes for asingle personal call in a DFC environment according to the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram of mid-call move feature boxes in a DFCenvironment according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram of multiparty control feature boxes in aDFC environment according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is an exemplary diagram of the transfer function used foraccomplishing multiparty control features according to the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 6 is an exemplary diagram of device augmentation feature boxes in aDFC environment according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is an exemplary diagram of personal mobility, multiparty controland device augmentation features cooperating in a DFC environmentaccording to present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a second exemplary diagram of personal mobility, multipartycontrol and device augmentation features cooperating in a DFCenvironment according to present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a third exemplary diagram of personal mobility, multipartycontrol and device augmentation features cooperating in a DFCenvironment according to present disclosure; and

FIG. 10 is an exemplary diagram of combined new and existing target zonefeatures applied to a usage according to the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

As presented above, device mobility by itself is not a comprehensivesolution to the overall problem of personal mobility. A completesolution must, in fact, incorporate software-based mobility, in which apersonal address is mapped by software to the address of a device, inorder to deliver personal mobility functions.

The present disclosure defines three clusters of related functions: (1)personal mobility features, including location, identification,authentication, update, and mid-call move; (2) multiparty controlfeatures, including n-way switching, n-way conferencing, hold, attendedtransfer, and conferenced transfer; and (3) device augmentationfeatures, including compound devices, augmented devices, and remotedevices. The meta-architecture for these clusters is based on DFC, andthe accompanying Figures show how to implement many variations of themwithin DFC. There may be variations that have different degrees ofmodularity and fit different network situations. All the variations arecustomizable, extensible, and have well-managed feature interactions. Aparticular variation is realized simply by subscribing certain addressesto certain features. It does not require changes to existing features orexplicit programming of the configuration. Implementation may beprovided on a service-creation platform offering the DFC or similarmodel of telecommunication feature composition.

In DFC, a request for a call initiated by a customer is satisfied by a“usage,” which may be represented as a dynamically assembled graph ofboxes and internal calls. A “box” represents a software process that isapplied upon receiving an internal call, which process enables eitherinterface functions (in the case of an interface box) or featurefunctions (in the case of a feature box). Features may be existingtelecommunications functions, such as caller identification, callforwarding, call waiting, and three-way calling. Such boxes may beestablished using a BoxOS operating system and appropriate programming.

An internal call is a featureless, point-to-point connection with atwo-way signaling channel and any number of media channels, and isrouted by a DFC router to a box according to a precedence orderdetermined by a routing algorithm. Feature boxes are applied to calls byincluding the appropriate feature boxes in the appropriate zone, such asa source zone for a caller and a target zone for the callee.

It is worth noting, that the DFC internal call can have an inter- orintra-node realization. All the feature boxes appearing in usages onbehalf of the same address are preferably implemented at the samenetwork node, so the internal calls that connect them are all intra-nodecalls. If the feature boxes on behalf of two addresses are implementedon different network nodes, on the other hand, an internal callconnecting a box of each address is an inter-node call. Thus,implementation of the usages discussed herein may be centralized ordistributed depending on the type of usage.

The fundamental idea of DFC is pipe-and-filter modularity, in which eachfeature box behaves transparently when its functions are not needed, andhas the autonomy to carry out its functions when they are required. Theyhave appropriate programming to place, receive, or tear down internalcalls. They can generate, receive or propagate signals traveling on thesignaling channels of the internal calls, and can process or transmitmedia streams traveling on the media channels of the internal calls. Afeature box interacts with other features only through its internalcalls, yet does not necessarily have information about the overallendpoints of a call. Thus, each feature box is largely contextindependent. This allows feature boxes to be easily added, deleted andchanged for a usage.

Each internal call is routed to a feature box by a DFC router, such as acomputing device or enterprise server, running an appropriate DFCrouting algorithm. The algorithm determines the boxes to be applied ineach usage, and the precedence order of each applied box. For purposesof illustrating the functions of the DFC router, the usage will beillustrated in the context of a personal call, defined as an attempt byone person to create a telecommunications connection to another personthrough a DFC system. It should be noted that a personal call of thistype usually involves many internal DFC routing calls for completing theconnection with application of the appropriate features, including thosesubscribed to by a caller and/or a callee, in the appropriate zones.

As used herein, an address may represent a telecommunication device, aperson, a group, or some other entity. For purposes of clarity, apersonal address associated with a particular customer will be describedherein using the designations “p1,” “p2,” etc. An address for acustomer's voice channel will be referenced as “c1,” “c2,” etc. Acompound device address will be referenced as “d1,” “d2,” etc. Anaddress for a voice device (such as a telephone or cellphone) will bereferenced as “v1,” “v2,” etc. An address for a signaling-only deviceswill referenced as “s1,” “s2,” etc.

A feature box type is the name of a program that defines the behavior ofa feature box of the corresponding type. Any address can subscribe tovarious feature box types. Feature box types that are subscribed to byan address in the source zone of a DFC environment are those relevant toa personal call whose source is that address. Feature box typessubscribed to by an address in the target zone are those relevant to apersonal call whose target is that address.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a simple personal call ina DFC environment according to existing technologies, wherein boxes arerepresented as squares, and internal calls as arrows. In this case, theusage is initiated by a device interface (DI) box. It has a singlesource address (designated ‘s’), which is the address of the initiatingdevice. It has a single target address (designated ‘t’), which is theaddress of the terminating or called DI device. Between the two DI boxesthere may be a linear chain of feature boxes and internal calls. Firstthere is a source zone, which, in the present example, consists of oneinstance of each of the two feature box types (F1 and F2) subscribed toin the source zone by the caller. Likewise, the target zone consists ofone instance of each of the two feature box types (F3 and F4) subscribedto in the target zone by a callee.

In each zone, the order of feature boxes is constrained by a precedenceorder of feature box types. In the development of this chain, eachfeature box has received an incoming internal call routed to it by theDFC router, through appropriate signaling channels. Each box applies a“continue” function to the setup signal of an incoming call, and usesthe resulting setup signal to place an outgoing internal call to thenext required feature box. The setup signal of the outgoing call goes tothe DFC router, which determines the next feature box type in the chain,and routes the internal call to an instance of that type.

In each of the FIGS. 1-10 herein, each internal call will be labeledwith its source and target address. The direction of the arrow indicatesthe direction in which the call was set up. Each feature box is labeledwith its box type and the address on whose behalf it appears in theusage.

Most usages are more complex than shown in FIG. 1. One complication isthat, in applying the continue function to a setup signal, a feature boxis allowed to specify a change of source or target address. If asource-zone feature box changes the source address from s1 to s2, forexample, the router will forget all remaining feature boxes of s1, andstart routing internal calls to the feature boxes in the source zone ofs2. Likewise, if a target-zone feature box changes the target addressfrom t1 to t2, for example, the router will forget all remaining featureboxes of t1, and start routing to the feature boxes in the target zoneof t2. As a result, a personal call may have a “source region” and a“target region,” where each region can consist of several zones, eachcontaining feature boxes subscribed to by a different address.

The state of a chain is maintained within its setup signals, so DFCrouters need not have any information about particular usages. Part ofthe state, for example, is a region field indicating whether a callsetup is part of the source or target region. The continue functioncopies this region field from an old to a new setup. If a DFC routerreceives a setup with region=source and finds that the source region isexhausted, it may change the region of the setup to “target” beforesending it to the first feature box of the target region.

Another complication found in usages is that a feature box type can be“free” or “bound.” If it is free, an internal call destined for aninstance of that type is routed to a new, interchangeable copy of thatfeature box. If it is bound, however, each instance of that box type ispersistent and uniquely associated with an address. Bound boxes enable“joins” in usages. A join occurs when an internal call is routed to abound box that is already participating in other internal calls. In theFIGS., both interface boxes and bound feature boxes are depicted withheavier lines than free feature boxes.

Some of the signals traveling on signaling channels are built-in andshared by many feature boxes. Most prominent of these are the signalsused to indicate the outcome of a personal call, including: “unknown” ifthe target address is unknown, “avail” if the personal call issuccessful in reaching the person, and “unavail” for the remainingsituations. In a simple usage, outcome signals travel upstream, from thecallee end to the caller end.

Another important category of signals is user interface (UI) signals.Some UI signals are sent from feature boxes to devices in order todisplay status information and offer command choices. Other UI signalsare sent from devices to feature boxes for purposes of encodingcommands. In a simple usage, UI signals travel between a feature box andthe device interface of the feature's subscriber (or customer). Eachfeature box engages in a private dialog with its subscriber, and suchsignals pass transparently through other feature boxes.

Feature boxes can access persistent operational data. Operational datamay be written by feature boxes and is usually partitioned by feature sothat it does not serve as a covert channel for undesired featureinteractions. Operational data may also be partitioned by address orcustomer for security purposes.

A feature is an increment of functionality with a cohesive purpose. Acomplex feature may include several separate functions. Itsimplementation may be decomposed into several feature box types, eachtype implementing one or more feature functions. It may also havededicated, persistent operational data.

Most multifunction features can be decomposed into feature boxes inseveral different ways, allowing a degree of freedom in design andimplementation. Such decompositions preferably incorporate simpler andmore reusable components, thus making it easier to customize complexfunctions by changing one or more of the function's components.

Descriptions of DFC functionality can be found in U.S. Pat. No.6,826,275 entitled “TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK SYSTEM AND METHOD” in thename of Pamela Zave et al. and assigned to the assignee of the presentapplication, the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference.

Turning now to FIGS. 2-10 and the accompanying descriptions, an improvedDFC environment is now introduced, in which personal mobility,multiparty control and device augmentation functionality areincorporated in one implementation. It shall be readily appreciated thatsuch features may also be provided with alternate implementations inother telecommunication environments.

The personal mobility feature introduced herein allows a customer tohave a personal address that can be used to contact the customer,regardless of the customer's location. The personal address is notassociated with any single telecommunications device.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example in which two feature box types are used toimplement the personal mobility feature. A device with address v1subscribes to the “ident” feature box in the source zone. Personaladdresses p1 and p2 both subscribe to the mobility or “mobil” featurebox in both the source and target zones. FIG. 2 depicts a personal callfrom p1 to p2. Accordingly, the call has the source mobil feature box ofp1 and the target mobil feature box of p2. The personal mobility featureincludes five functions implemented within these two box types.

The first function employed by the mobil feature box is designated“location” and may be illustrated with respect to FIG. 2. Upon receivingan internal call when p1 is trying to reach p2, the mobil feature box inthe target zone of p2 uses operational data to determine thetelecommunication device currently being used by p2. In this case, p2 iscurrently using the device with address v2. The location function hasmany possible behaviors. For example, it can try several possiblelocations for a callee, sequentially or in parallel.

A companion of the location function is “identification,” which may beperformed by the ident feature box shown in FIG. 2. This function, whichmay be performed either unconditionally or only when a caller requestsit, changes the source address from v1 (the device address or “deviceidentifier”) to p1 (the caller's personal address or “calleridentifier”). The device identifier may be a telephone number or networkaddress associated with the device, in the case where the device is atelephone or cellphone. The caller identifier may be any personalizedidentification established by the caller, such as the caller's name,nickname or any other desired message as selected by the customer. Thecaller identifier does not include the device identifier. The personaladdress of the caller may be received from the caller in any of avariety of manners including interactive voice response unit, networkinterface or any other means of communication. The personal address isthen stored as operational data associated with the caller or a deviceof the caller.

This functionality has two advantages. First, the callee will know he isbeing called by p1 regardless of the device used by the caller, and canrecognize this from the personal address p1 that is transmitted in placeof the device address v1 of the device used by the caller. This hasparticular advantages when the caller is making the call from a devicewhose address is not recognizable to the callee, such as when the calleris calling from a public telephone. Second, the usage will be routedthrough the source zone features of p1, so that the caller will haveaccess to all his personal features and data, regardless of his currentlocation or device used.

The identification function may be easily abused. For example, anunauthorized person can use device v1, even though it is meant only forthe use of customer p1. In another example, the owner of device v1 mayattempt to program the device to provide a false identification withoutgoing calls. For these reasons, there is an authentication functionperformed by the mobil feature box.

When a mobil feature box is in the source zone, the authenticationfunction is activated when the mobil feature box receives its incomingcall. The authentication function requests a password from the personplacing the call, which may be entered vocally, by keypad, or bykeyboard, depending on the device employed. The received password maythen be verified against stored operational data for the customerassumed to be making the call. The call is completed only upon suchverification. Since the routing algorithm guarantees that any personalcall with the source address p1 is routed through the mobil feature boxof p1 in the source region, this authentication function cannot bebypassed.

Although it is less common, the mobil feature box can also include afunction to authenticate the callee, in case an unauthorized person ormachine receives the call. This form of authentication is activated onlyin a target zone mobil feature box, and only when the call is answered.It does not connect caller and callee until they have verified theiridentification in this manner.

FIG. 2 illustrates the compositional nature of DFC in that each internalcall has ellipses in it, which indicates that might be a single internalcall or might also include a subgraph of boxes and internal calls. Theellipses in FIG. 2 marked A and B are of special interest with respectto authentication. Because the precedence order places the mobil featurebox first in the source zone, and last in the target zone, all otherpersonal source zone feature boxes of p1 will be found in internal callA, and all other personal target zone feature boxes of p2 will be foundin internal call B. In each zone, the mobil feature box stands guardbetween the caller and the personal feature boxes, so that personalfeatures cannot be accessed until the caller is authenticated.

The third function of the mobil feature box is “update,” by which acaller can enter his current location from a telecommunications device.This entered information is then stored in the operational data for thatcaller. The information may be updated by the customer himself, orsimply by using the device identifier from which the customer iscalling.

During a call, a caller may sometimes need to change locations ordevices, but wishes to continue the conversation. For example, acustomer p1 may be using home telephone v1, but needs to leave for work.The mobil feature box provides a fourth “mid-call move” function forthis purpose, an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 3. Themid-called move function initiates an internal call to a device v3designated by customer p1, which may be his cellphone. FIG. 3illustrates this half of the usage of FIG. 2 after the mobil feature boxhas placed the internal call to device v3. The customer p1 then answersthe call using device v3 and hangs up on device v1. The device v1 willsubsequently tear down its internal call, and the tear down willpropagate through the usage until it reaches the mobil feature box. Whenthe usage stabilizes, the mobil feature box will once again beparticipating in exactly two internal calls.

Of the four functions performed by the mobil feature box, update andmid-call move work exactly the same regardless of whether the mobilfeature box is in the source zone or the target zone of its personaladdress, and authentication works almost exactly the same in both zones.A personal address subscribes to the same mobil feature box in bothsource and target zones so that the customer will have access to thesame functions regardless of whether he is the caller or the callee. Abox type that must be subscribed to in both target and source zones isreferred to herein as a reversible box type.

Recall that a feature box applies the continue method to the setupsignal of an incoming call, and uses the resulting setup signal to placean outgoing call in the same region. The vast majority of internal callsare placed using the continue function, but occasionally a reversiblebox is sometimes required to do something different. Occasionally itmust reverse the direction of a chain of internal calls. To accomplishthis, it applies a “reverse” function to the setup signal an outgoingcall, and uses the resulting setup signal to place an outgoing call inthe opposite region. The reverse function also reverses the source andtarget addresses automatically.

FIG. 3 is the result of one such reverse routing which becomesnecessary, for example, when a customer originally placed a personalcall from a device, but now wants to be called at another device. Insuch instances, the mobil feature box obtains the setup signal for itsinternal call by reversing the setup of its original outgoing call withtarget address p2, which has region=source. The setup signal of the newinternal call has region=target and a source address of p2.

As with the continue method, a feature box applying the reverse functioncan specify a change of source or target address. In this case, themobil feature box changes the target address from p1 to v3. In doing so,it performs the location function that locates customer p1 at device v3.Here, the mobil feature box originally routed to in the source region isperforming the target region function of location, and places a call inthe target region.

As opposed to existing telecommunications systems in which a customermust dial into a toll free number to reach his service provider, andthen dial a second number to place the outgoing call to a callee, theidentification function herein allows a customer to achieve the same endresult without the inconvenience of such double-dialing, so long as thedevice being used subscribes to the correct features.

A second feature introduced to the DFC environment herein is themultiparty control feature, which allows a customer to control multiplepersonal calls simultaneously. The customer may switch between thecalls, create conferences, and perform various transfer functions,sometimes referred to herein as call transfer and call switchingfunctions. FIG. 4 illustrates one configuration of the boxes applied forthis feature, to which the devices having addresses v1 and v2 bothsubscribe.

The switching and spontaneous conferencing (SSC) box type shown in FIG.4 is both bound and reversible. A “switching” function provided by thisbox type is an unrestricted version of call-waiting. Referring to FIG.4, device v1 is first used to place a personal call to device v2. Thepersonal call is routed through the SSC feature box (that actstransparently until it features are requested by the caller at v1) inthe source zone, and is then eventually routed to the SSC feature box(that acts transparently until its functions are requested by the calleeat v2) in the target zone, and the call is then completed at device v2.

Now suppose the callee wishes to initiate a new personal call back tothe caller at v1. The SSC feature box in the target zone receives thiscommand and reverses the setup signal of its outgoing internal call withsource=v1, target=v2, resulting in a setup signal with source=v2 andtarget=v1. This results in a new chain of internal calls routed to v1through the SSC feature box in the source zone.

SSC feature boxes cause the signaling channel of the internal call onits device side to be shared among the multiple internal calls on itsnetwork side. When the SSC feature box in the source zone of FIG. 4receives the new incoming internal call from v2, it uses the signalingchannel to tell the customer at v1 that a new personal call has arrived.At this point, the customer at v1 can enter a command to answer the newpersonal call, which causes the SSC feature box to connect its voicechannel to the voice channel of device v2.

As a result of switching capabilities, an SSC feature box can maintainany number of personal calls, any of which may be outgoing or incomingfrom the perspective of its associated customer. The user can connect toany one of the calls as desired, causing the SSC feature box to placeall the other calls “on hold.”

A “spontaneous conferencing” function of the SSC feature box enables itsassociated customer to group personal calls into conferences in anymanner, and to change the groupings at any time. The members of a groupcan speak to each other at all times, as well as to the customer thatinitiated the conference whenever that customer's voice channel isswitched to that conference. The customer who initiated a group can alsotransfer the entire group. In such case, all the personal calls receivetransfer signals leading to the same destination.

A “transfer” function, provided by the “transf” feature boxes in FIG. 4,enables a customer to move his end of a personal call to anothercustomer (as opposed to moving it to another device he is using, whichis the purpose of the mid-call move function), after which the customermay leave the call. The transf feature box is reversible, and may beapplied to both outgoing and incoming personal calls.

The transf feature box responds to transfer commands initiated by itsassociated customer. FIG. 5 illustrates part of the usage that involvesfrom the situation in FIG. 4, after a customer at device v1 transfers apersonal call to a customer at device v3.

The SSC and transf feature boxes of the multiparty control feature areseparate for two reasons. First, they may be used independently of eachother and a customer need not subscribe to them both. Second, most otherfeature boxes that may be subscribed to go between these two featureboxes according to preferred precedence order in a DFC environment. Inother words, SSC is ordered early in the source zone and late in thetarget zone, while transf is ordered late in the source zone and earlyin the target zone. In FIG. 4, most of the boxes subscribed to by v1would be found in the area designated “E.” The value of this arrangementis that when a customer transfers his end of a personal call, most ofthis feature boxes may no longer be included in it. This is representedin FIG. 5, where area E is gone since the call has been transferred fromv1 to v3.

A third feature introduced herein is referred to as “deviceaugmentation.” Since many existing devices that are connected totelecommunications systems are impoverished in their functionality(i.e., older telephone models), they do not provide a UI or commandbuttons by which a customer can utilize the personal mobility andmultiparty control features presented herein. Accordingly, the deviceaugmentation feature has been added to enhance the signalingcapabilities on any device that may be employed by a customer.

A “voice signaling” function provided by a device augmentation featurebox enables the voice channel of a telephone to be used for signalingpurposes. When a feature box sends a signal containing statusinformation, another feature box performing this voice signalingfunction intercepts the signal and translates it into a tone or anannouncement that is played to a customer. Such announcement may providethe customer with information as to commands that may be entered forexample using a touchtone keypad of the telephone or by speaking verbalcommands that may be recognized by an interactive voice response unit orthe like. The customer inputs commands using touch tones, a feature boxperforming the voice signaling function may recognize tone sequences andtranslate them into command signals. A box performing voice signalingcan be located anywhere in the usage between the device interface and afeature box whose user interface it is supporting.

Furthermore, a device augmentation feature box can associate a telephonedevice with a graphical user interface (GUI) running on a nearbycomputer and treat them as a compound device. Enabling this is theprimary function of the compound device interface (CDI) box shown inFIG. 6. The CDI feature box acts as an interface box for a compounddevice with two or more such hardware components. The CDI box alsoincludes a voice signaling function to be used as a backup when the GUIis not present. The CDI box is both reversible and bound.

In FIG. 6, d1 and d2 are both addresses of compound devices. FIG. 6illustrates the CDI box associated with v1 being routed to in the sourcezone, while the CDI box associated with v2 is routed in the target zone.Because the CDI feature box is bound, all personal calls to or from acompound device must go through the same CDI box. Accordingly, a CDI boxcan only have one internal call on its network side at a time.

When the CDI box associated with d2 receives an internal call, it placescorresponding internal calls to the address of its signaling device s2and the address of its voice device v2. If the call to s2 fails, thenthat CDI feature box provides the backup voice signaling function on thecall to v2. If the call to s2 succeeds, then the CDI feature box usesits signaling channel for all user-interface signaling.

The personal call illustrated in FIG. 6 is placed by the signalingdevice s1 of compound device d1. Device s1 subscribes in the source zoneto the “assump” feature box, which provides an “assumption” functionthat assumes that a caller using device d1 is the customer associatedwith that device. The “assump” feature box is then analogous to the“ident” feature box described earlier above. Because of the assumptionfunction, the personal call placed in FIG. 6 is next routed to the CDIfeature box associated with the customer at d1 in the source zone.

An address of the compound device acts like a personal address toidentify a virtual entity comprising more than one device within atelecommunications system. Just as a personal target address is locatedby a mobil feature box at a device address as shown in FIG. 2, acompound device target address is located by a CDI feature box using twodevice addresses as shown in FIG. 6. Given the similarity, it should bereadily apparent that the relationship of ident v1 and mobil p1 on thesource side of FIG. 2, is identical to the relationship between assumps1 and CDI d1 on the source side of FIG. 6.

When the CDI feature box of d1 receives its incoming call, it places twooutgoing calls. First, it applies the continue function to the incomingcall and uses the result to place an outgoing call to d2. Next, itapplies the reverse function to the outgoing call, and uses the resultto place an outgoing call with source=d2 and target=v1. The telephonedevice with address v1 is the voice component of compound device d1.

Depending on a customer's needs, the characteristics of their devices,and telecommunications network capabilities, the personal mobility,multiparty control, and device augmentation features presented hereincan be combined in many different ways. No explicit programming isneeded to assemble each possible usage. To get an operable configurationof features, all the system needs to do is subscribe the right addressesto the right feature box types, and give the right address data tofeatures that translate from one address to another. Then, as personalcalls are processed, the DFC routing algorithm will dynamically assemblefeature boxes into the correct precedence order for the usage.

Various combinations of the features disclosed herein, as well ascombinations with existing telecommunications features offered in DFCand other environments, will now be presented. A combination of thepersonal mobility and multiparty control features will first beconsidered. These two features can be combined in a usage in two ways,depending on the signaling capabilities of the telecommunicationsdevices employed. If some devices in an environment have UI signalingcapabilities sufficient for accommodating multiparty control whileothers do not, it is best for only the addresses of devices withsufficient signaling capabilities to subscribe to the multiparty controlfeature. Referring to FIG. 2, let it be assumed that devices v1 and v2both have such sufficient signaling capabilities. A combination ofpersonal mobility and multiparty control features applied to a usagebetween v1 and v2 would then be found by nesting the configuration ofFIG. 2 (except the interface boxes and devices) within area C of FIG. 4.For the addresses to match, the original target address of the upperpersonal call in FIG. 4 would have to be p2, and the ultimate sourceaddress would have to be p1. The same sub-graph, with v1 and v2 as wellas p1 and p2 reversed, would be found nested within area D of FIG. 4. Inthis configuration, a customer can only move one personal call at a timewith the mid-call move function.

If all or most devices can support the signaling needed for multipartycontrol, on the other hand, it makes little sense for personal addressesto subscribe to multiparty control. In this case, all of FIG. 4 exceptits interface boxes and devices, and with p1 substituted for v1 and p2substituted for v2, would be nested within areas A and B of FIG. 2. Inthis configuration, the mid-call move function may be used to move allof a customer's personal calls simultaneously.

Next, combinations of personal mobility, multiparty control and deviceaugmentation will be considered. Referring to FIG. 7, there is depicteda usage between p1 and p2, using compound devices d1 and d2,respectively. In this configuration, the compound devices couldsubscribe to multiparty control. If so, the SSC and transf feature boxesof d1 would be located at area F along the path of the personal callshown in FIG. 7, and the SSC and transf feature boxes of d2 would befound in area G. Alternatively, the personal addresses could subscribeto multiparty control. In that case, the SSC and transf feature boxes ofp1 and p2 would be found at areas H and J respectively. In eitherscenario, the device augmentation feature is placed between the compounddevices and the multiparty control feature boxes.

Other features may be readily applied within the usage depicted in FIG.7. For example, other source zone feature boxes of p1 would be found inarea H, while other target some features of p2 would be found in area J.Such features could include personalized dialing, voicemail features,and call logging that are already provided within existing DFCenvironments.

Turning now to FIG. 8, there is depicted another combination of thepersonal mobility and device augmentation features in a usage. Here, itis assumed that the personal addresses subscribed to the deviceaugmentation feature. Each customer has a signaling device address, s1and s2, that identifies a GUI with device mobility. A customer can loginto a copy of the GUI on any computer and use it for any networkconnection. Because of this use of network-based device mobility, thereis no need for software-based feature mobility on the signaling side. Onthe voice side, a personal CDI feature box uses personal voice channeladdress c1 or c2. Because the customer might want to locate his personalvoice channel at any telephone, addresses c1 and c2 subscribe topersonal mobility.

Both FIGS. 7 and 8 depict personal calls from p1 to p2. In FIG. 7, acustomer initiated the personal call from the GUI of his compounddevice, but in FIG. 8, that customer initiates the personal call fromhis telephone. FIG. 8 demonstrates how, on the source side, personalmobility applies to c1, and c1 assumes its role as the voice channel ofthe compound device used by p1.

In the configuration of FIG. 8, multiparty control can only be subscribeto by personal addresses in its feature boxes can only be found in areasK and L. This is the only way that multiparty control to take advantageof device augmentation. Other source zone feature boxes of p1 would befound in area K, while other target some features of p2 would also befound in area L.

For the most part, feature interaction has been properly managed inthese combinations. For example, FIG. 7 illustrates that multipartycontrol could be subscribed to by any of d1, d2, p1 or p2, and placingits feature boxes at areas E, F, G, and H, respectively. In all of thosecases, there is a CDI feature box between the multiparty control featurebox and the customer, thus providing the enhanced signaling required.FIG. 8, on the other hand, has an unresolved problem. The mobil boxes ofc1 and c2 are outside the areas of the usage (K and L) where they couldbenefit from the user interface provided by the CDI feature box. Themobil boxes can not be placed there since the personal mobility functionapplies to the voice channel only.

To solve this problem, the functions of the personal mobility featuremay resolved into boxes different from the manners described before. Themobil box may be reassigned to perform only the functions of locationand mid-call move. A new “mobil UI” box would then performauthentication, update and the UI signaling portion of mid-call move,such that when the mobil UI box receives a move command, it sends aprivate move signal to the mobil box.

FIG. 9 demonstrates the benefits of this new decomposition. The voicechannel addresses c1 and c2 subscribe to mobil feature boxes, so thatmobility applies to the voice channel only. The personal addresses p1and p2 subscribe to mobil UI, so that the user interface of personalmobility can take advantage of device augmentation. With the exceptionof the private move single described above, the boxes of the personalmobility feature in this configuration communicate only throughoperational data.

Additional configurations of the features introduced herein with knowntelecommunications features are also possible. The target zone of apossible usage with both new and existing features is depicted in FIG.10. Between the transf and SSC feature boxes for the multiparty controlfeature, there is a call log box for providing known call loggingfunctions and a voicemail (VM) feature box for providing known voicemailfeatures, such as recording a voicemail when the callee does not answera call. In FIG. 10, an incoming personal call has reached an SSC boxthat is already engaged with other calls. If the callee signals SSC toanswer the new personal call, then the SSC feature box will send anavail signal upstream on the new personal call and open the voicechannel to the caller. If there is a timeout before the callee answers,then SSC will instead send an unavail signal upstream.

The avail signal makes the VM box act transparently, while the unavailsignal triggers it to open a voice channel to the caller and offer torecord a voice mail message. Recording ends when the caller completesthe voicemail message, and a chain of teardown signals is propagatesthrough the usage to the VM box. The VM box will never itself propagatea teardown further upstream in a call since the entire usage istorn-down before it can do so.

The call log feature box puts a call record in a database, in any of avariety of known manners. It should be noted the customer answer thecall in the triggering a voicemail both cause a voice channel to thecaller to be opened, albeit for different purposes. The call log box cantypically distinguish these cases by the presence or absence of an availsignal.

The coordination of VM and transf is more subtle because transf istriggered by a transfer command from a customer rather than an outcomesignal. A callee, for example, can issue a transfer command before orafter an avail outcome signal is propagated. This is due to the factthat a customer may transfer a personal call before or after receivingit. Accordingly, both the transf and VM boxes function by tearing downthe downstream internal calls, which are relevant to their functions,and manipulating their upstream connections to the caller. This patternof behavior conveys priority to the upstream feature box because it iscloser to the caller and can cut the downstream feature box off from thecaller. To achieve this desired behavior, priority is given to thetransfer function by placing the transf box upstream of the VM box.

As this example shows, the signaling interactions among features aredetermined by their handling of signals and their position in a usage.Among feature boxes in the target zone of an address, for example thosefeature boxes displayed in FIG. 10, relative position is determined bythe precedence order of feature box types. In a usage, the zones areordered according to their subscribing addresses, and this ordering canbe used to ensure correct feature interactions.

Although the best methodologies have been particularly described in theforegoing disclosure, it is to be understood that such descriptions havebeen provided for purposes of illustration only, and that othervariations both in form and in detail can be made thereupon by thoseskilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope thereof,which is defined first and foremost by the appended claims.

1. A method for providing a personal mobility feature to atelecommunications call, performed over a telecommunications network,the method comprising: receiving a request to initiate a call to acallee from a device used by the caller; receiving an identification ofa personal address associated only with the caller, the personal addressdifferent from a device identifier associated with the device; andapplying a call feature to the call based only on the personal address,the call feature being subscribed to by the caller and applied to anycall initiated using the personal address on any device.
 2. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: transmitting the personal address inplace of the device identifier to the callee.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising: authenticating the caller prior to said applying. 4.The method of claim 3, said authenticating further comprising:requesting a password from the caller; and receiving a valid passwordfrom the caller.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said applying isperformed by a personal mobility feature box in a distributed featurecomposition (DFC) environment.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein thepersonal mobility feature box comprises an identification box forreceiving the personal address from the caller.
 7. The method of claim1, further comprising: receiving a mid-call move command from the callerto move the call from the device to a second device without interruptingthe call for the callee; establishing a second call between the seconddevice and a device of the callee, the call feature applied to thesecond call and the second device based on the personal address; andtearing down the call on the first device, after the caller commencesthe second call.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein said establishing isperformed by a personal mobility feature box in a distributed featurecomposition (DFC) environment.
 9. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving a call transfer command from the caller totransfer the call to another party; and transferring the call to theparty identified by the caller.
 10. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving an incoming call directed to the personal addressof the caller; notifying the caller of the incoming call; receiving acommand from the caller to accept the incoming call; placing the calleeon hold; and initiating a switching function to connect the caller tothe incoming call.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein said receivingthe command, said placing and said connecting are performed by amultiparty control feature box in a distributed feature composition(DFC) environment.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the device is acompound device comprising at least two telecommunications devices. 13.The method of claim 12, wherein the call feature is applied to the callby a device augmentation feature box in a distributed featurecomposition (DFC) environment, the device augmentation feature box forcoordinating voice and signaling channels between the at least twotelecommunications devices, wherein the voice channels and signalingchannels are applied to separate components of the compoundtelecommunications device.
 14. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving a command from the caller to conference the calleeand a second callee; establishing a conference call including thecaller, the callee, and the second callee, in response to the command.15. The method of claim 14, wherein said establishing is performed by amultiparty control feature box in a distributed feature composition(DFC) environment.
 16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:transmitting the personal address in place of the device identifier tothe second callee.
 17. The method of claim 1, wherein the personaladdress is selected by the caller.
 18. A method for providing a personalmobility feature to a call, comprising: receiving, from a caller, arequest to establish a call with a callee, the request including apersonal address of the callee; identifying a device currentlyassociated by the callee with the personal address; applying, to thecall, at least one call feature subscribed to by the personal address ofthe callee; and establishing the call with the device, wherein the atleast one call feature is accessible by the callee using the device. 19.The method of claim 18, said at least one call feature comprising atleast one of: an authentication of the callee, a call transfer functionallowing the callee to transfer the call to another party and leave thecall, a call switching function allowing the callee to switch to anothercall, a mid-call move function allowing the callee to move a call toanother device, a conference call function and a device augmentationfunction.
 20. An apparatus for providing personal mobility features in adistributed feature composition (DFC) telecommunication architecturehaving a-plurality of feature boxes for establishing call features to acall, the apparatus comprising a computer server including a processorand a memory for storing and executing: an identification box comprisingprogramming code for authenticating a caller and associating a personaladdress of the caller in place with a device used by the caller, thedevice identifier having a separate device identifier, the personaladdress used to apply a call feature subscribed to by the caller to thecall; a mobility box comprising programming code for enabling the callerto transfer the call to a second telecommunications device; a multipartycontrol box comprising programming code for enabling the caller to addat least one additional callee to the call; and a device augmentationbox comprising programming code for coordinating voice and signalingchannels between components of a compound telecommunications device,wherein the voice channels and signaling channels may be applied toseparate components of the compound telecommunications device andwherein the identification box, the mobility box, the multiparty controlbox, and the device augmentation box are established in a precedenceorder in the call by a DFC routing algorithm.